diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fbe011249..93a6e8747 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+	* fix python build with CC/CXX environment
 	* add trackers from add_torrent_params/magnet links to separate tiers
 	* fix resumedata check issue with files with priority 0
 	* deprecated mmap_cache feature
diff --git a/bindings/python/setup.py b/bindings/python/setup.py
index 69de9b95b..9492314e5 100644
--- a/bindings/python/setup.py
+++ b/bindings/python/setup.py
@@ -116,6 +116,13 @@ else:
 		extra_link = flags.parse(ldflags)
 		extra_compile = flags.parse(extra_cmd)
 
+		# for some reason distutils uses the CC environment variable to determine
+		# the compiler to use for C++
+		if 'CXX' in os.environ:
+			os.environ['CC'] = os.environ['CXX']
+		if 'CXXFLAGS' in os.environ:
+			os.environ['CFLAGS'] = os.environ['CXXFLAGS']
+
 		ext = [Extension('libtorrent',
 			sources = source_list,
 			language='c++',